Some states don’t require that you have to pay a state tax -- isn’t that lucky? Louisiana isn’t one of those states though, nor are we one of the states with a fixed (flat) tax rate. What this means, is that rather like federal taxes, our state taxes are calculated on our income, and as our income goes up or down, our state taxes will change with it. Unlike federal taxes, state taxes are much less confusing, though there are still some issues.

If you made income in Louisiana, for example, but lived in Texas, do you have to pay taxes? Texas is one of the states without state tax, right? Wrong. If you made money in a state that participates in state taxes, you have to pay. You may be considered a part-time or even a non-resident, but because you worked, you owe the tax. The reverse is also true. If you worked in Texas, but lived in Louisiana, you still have to pay state taxes. They may be slightly less, but you never know until you file.

Reciprocity agreements can also factor into state taxes. A reciprocal agreement is when two states agree to exempt the earned income of residents in neighboring states from state taxes. Simply, what this means is that someone in one state can work in another state while only paying taxes to the state they live in. For example, people who live in Virginia, but work in Washington D.C. would use this agreement to file exemption in D.C. and only take the Virginia taxes. This agreement works best when both states have taxes, and it’s on the employee to file a certificate and abide by the agreement.

State taxes can be confusing, but they don’t need to be. If you’re confused about what to pay, or even how to pay, iRefund can help you prepare for state taxes.

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Some businesses offering tax preparation, and other similar services, are only open during the tax preparation season. If they’re a bank, they pull some of their workers aside and assign them to the tax side of things just for a little bit. If they’re a generic tax company, they find an open space to rent and move in for a while. Nothing about their actions is permanent, other than the fact they’ll do this every year.

What does that mean for your taxes? Due to the nature of their status, these people don’t work year-round on taxes. They don’t go to classes, or keep up to date with the changing of forms or of rules. Their sole focus is the tax season, and that’s it.

iRefundis open all year around -- so, for example, if you applied for an extension on your taxes, you can still come in and see us. Other companies have long moved on and banks now would make you wait for an appointment months away. Or if you’ve gotten your tax return back, but you want another eye on it, just to make sure that everything’s accurate? We can do that too. The benefits to being open year-round mean that any time there’s a question or concern about taxes -- we can help with that right away.

Our employees take classes, and learn on the job.iRefundis the best choice in business tax learning. That learning is applied to helping customers, and because we’re open year-round, it proves that iRefund is the best tax experience you could have.

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For Americans, taxes and everything about them seem to be elusive. They know they have a certain period where they have to do their taxes and a date that they have to be done by, but everything else doesn’t make sense. Many Americans don’t even seem to know that the tax season officially starts on January 1st -- they could have their taxes done months before April 15th!

Each year, though, there are almost always reports of accountants and local tax groups being flooded in early April and working around the clock right to the deadline. Why don’t people know about this? Is it because their companies are vague about sending them tax returns, or is everyone a procrastinator when it comes to the amount of forms? There are so many tax refund companies out there willing to help that it just doesn’t seem to make sense. How can the general public be made aware of the four months they have to do their taxes?

It’s tempting to imagine some kind of commercial, and in fact, many tax companies do run commercials. They run on TV and on radio stations, and they’re beginning to pop up online. TV ads don’t always work well, because many people have the power to skip ads. In addition, it’s expensive to run commercials during the most popular shows! It’s not Super Bowl levels of expensive, but trying to run a commercial for taxes during a show like How To Get Away With Murder? Many tax companies are smaller, and can’t afford the costs, even if a lot of people would see that ad. The radio has similar issues, in that not a lot of people listen to radio stations these days, and trying to get an ad on streaming music like Spotify is tricky. The Internet seems to be the last place for advertisers to go, but if people are picky about their TV and radio, they’re downright snobs when it comes to companies on social media.

What can tax companies do? They rely on word of mouth and their websites. Even if people are coming in at the last minute, they’re going to help them as much as they can, and hopefully those people will remember to come in earlier next year. Tax season is always busy, but it can be made less stressful for companies and taxpayers alike by getting it done early.

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Tax season is frustrating, we know. Getting together all your files and trying to figure out what forms go where and who to ask for help? It can definitely seem daunting at times -- and maybe even tempting just to make up a few details on the form.

Don’t do that.

It may seem like only rich businessmen with lots of money lie on their tax forms, but honestly, it doesn’t take a certain amount of money to do it. Yes, the more money you earn in a given year, the more you have to pay back (and the less you may get in a refund.) And all the movies may make it look cool, like The Wolf of Wall Street and The Big Short, for instance, but seriously, it’s not.

The real-life people in those fictionalized stories didn’t live happily ever after. They went to jail and left their families broke with no real way to make money. If theIRSconvicts someone of evading taxes, they have no issues with seizing bank accounts. On top of jail time, there’s usually hefty fines to pay -- and depending on the severity of the evasion and how long it lasted, they can go back and demand money for each year’s worth of taxes.

It’s possible to make honest mistakes on your taxes, of course. It’s very hard to accidentally evade your taxes, and the IRS knows that. If you make a mistake, they’ll notify you and often, they’ll correct it themselves. Taxes are one of the fundamental cornerstones of our economy, and from the IRS down to the tax groups like us, we all want to make it work for you.

That’s why, no matter your feelings on the government or our economy, it’s so important to pay taxes. Maybe it doesn’t seem like things are so great, but if we all stopped paying taxes, things would get a lot worse. To avoid even making the IRS wonder if you’re trying to evade your taxes, work with a trained group that can help you get everything exactly right -- likeiRefund.

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Let’s be honest, taxes are confusing. Even when you’re working with a professional tax company, it’s easy to make a mistake and not put down something that might help you get more money back. Or if you’re working on your own, it can be tempting just to hurry through them.

Don’t do that! The first thing to keep in mind when you’re doing taxes is to start as early as you can. Many companies will send you your W-2 right away, and if you’re not sure, you can always contact your Human Resources department. If it’s your first time filing, you may want to give yourself even more time to make sure that you understand the process. There is another bonus to filing early -- often because so many people put it off, it’s pretty easy to get an early appointment with a professional to doyour taxes.

Even if you did it right -- you filed your taxes early, and with the help of a trained tax professional, maybe you forgot something. Say you worked two jobs in the past year, but only put in one W-2. In that case, you would then need to file a tax amendment to add in your record of that second job, and your tax return would almost certainly go up. See, that’s a bonus! It can seem a little embarrassing to have to file an amendment on your return, but it really isn’t. Plus, the IRSgives you a little over three years to correct it and get your money. If you send them a corrected return after those years are up, you won’t get the money you might be owed.

If you don’t file an amendment, though, it can be a little more serious than not getting your money. Based on the error made, the IRS will cite it as either a fraudulent tax return or as a case of tax evasion. Neither of those are good -- there’s no reason not to fix a simple mistake like the amount of dependents you have, for instance.

When don’t you need to file an amendment? Obviously, when you’ve done everything right!

Well, maybe you did your return yourself, but in the process of getting everything together, you did your math wrong. That’s okay. TheIRS automatically checks the numbers on every return they get anyway, and if it’s wrong, you’ll be notified. They’ll automatically recalculate and adjust what you may have thought your return would be. Yes, it might be a bit embarrassing to be told you did the math wrong, but if you prepared your own taxes and that was the only mistake made: congratulations!

Overall, if you have any questions about your return -- and whether you may need to file an amendment, don’t be afraid to talk to a trained tax professional. We want you to get the most out of your return, and it’s easier than you might think to prepare an amendment.

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Taxes!Just the word already makes a lot of people confused, and when you dig deep into it, it’s easy to see how people could get lost. There are a lot of different forms to pay attention to, but then you also have to gather your own forms, and sometimes you might be a special case and not know about it. Of course, there are a lot of different options for tax preparing.

There're online websites that will fill everything in for you, as long as you provide a few key numbers. They’ll show you the forms, and you’ll know its right, but websites can’t really explain your personal tax documents to you. They can give you examples, but they can’t make them personal. Their calculations are correct, of course, but you don’t get much of an explanation for them either. Most websites only offer the basics -- so, for example, if you wanted to be able to track how your return was progressing, you’d have to pay a steep fee. Overall, these websites will get the job done, but if you end up with a lot of questions about your return, they’re not equipped to answer.

Many banks these days are offering tax preparation services. It’s already a step up from the website, because now you’re working with an actual person, who has your forms and history in front of them. However, these services aren’t always done by actual tax professionals -- rather, they are the bank’s employees, just performing another service. It may not be something they’ve trained for, or if they’ve taken classes, it’s been a long time. They can be very helpful, in part because customer service is such a big part of the banking experience, but they’re simply not tax professionals.

When you work withiRefund, what you’re getting is a trained team of tax professionals, who work on taxes and related documents year-round. We work with you, so when you have questions about your return, we’re not just citing examples. Websites and banks are all very well, but if you want to get the most money out of your return, you need to turn to the pros.